Genes Controlling Mating-Type Specificity in PARAMECIUM CAUDATUM: Three Loci Revealed by Intersyngenic Crosses

In mating interactions in Paramecium caudatum, initial mating agglutination is strictly mating-type specific, but subsequent conjugating pair formation is not mating-type specific. Using this nonspecificity of pair formation, intersyngenic (intersibling species) pairs were induced by mixing four mating types of two different syngens. To distinguish intersyngenic pairs from intrasyngenic ones, the behavioral marker CNR (Takahashi 1979) was mainly used. Clones of intersyngenic hybrids showed high fertility and thus made feasible a genetic analysis of syngenic specificity of mating type. The syngenic specificities of E (even) mating types were found to be controlled by co-dominant multiple alleles at the Mt locus, and those of O (odd) mating types by interactions of co-dominant multiple alleles at two loci, MA and MB. Clones of heterozygotes express dual mating types. Mt is epistatic to MA and MB, and thus O mating types can be expressed only in the recessive homozygote (mt/mt) at the Mt locus. In addition, at least one allele each at the MA and MB loci must have a common syngen specificity for the expression of O types. Thus, when MA is homozygous for one syngen and MB is homozygous for another syngen, no mating type is expressed.